This is bird note.

The white-vinted storm petrel is a small black-and-white seabird found off the coasts of Chile and Peru.

Storm petrels spend their entire lives at sea, except when nesting.

They pluck small fish and zooplankton from the water with their beaks,

appearing to dance on the ocean as they patter their feet on the water to stay just above the surface.

Most species of storm petrels nest in rock crevices or burrows,

which they visit only after dark.

But scientists had long been mystified about just where white-vented storm petrels nest.

A search lasting eight years led them to a site 50 miles inland from the Chilean coastline

in one of the world's driest regions, the Atacama Desert, a place often compared to the

surface of Mars.

They employed dogs specially trained to sniff out seabirds. The dogs helped locate 14 white-vinted

storm petrel nests, tucked into mineral deposits deep in the desert.

The hard-won knowledge of this elusive storm petrels nesting habitat

will aid in conservation work to protect this little-known bird.

For Bird Note, I'm Ariana Rimmel.

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